17 replies to this topic

[Ralph]

Having read other posts, I seem to be getting off fairly lightly. I will no longer worry about random and generally unrepeatable hangs at assorted places during building DVDs, during burning, when trying to use D2D or when loading. Nor will I remain surprised that my free version of Roxio Creator simply stopped working one day after I had installed IE7, forcing me to upgrade to EMC9 - bad decision!
However, I now have a solid fault which I would appreciate some feedback on. Suddenly VideoWave (the only component which, up to now, had performed faultlessly) has started to crash every time I try to insert a transition.  The Microsoft report says that it is attempting to access an instruction at an invalid memory location.

System:
AMD Athlon 3200+ with HTT
ATI Radion Xpress 200 motherboard
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 onboard graphics
1Gb dual channel DDR RAM (PC3200) 400MHz
Dual layer DVD RW
DVD ROM
Roxio EMC free edition UPGRADED to EMC9 in November 2006  - though every time I start the application I am exhorted to upgrade to EMC9 !!!!

[grandpabruce]

Ralph, on Jan 6 2007, 03:10 AM, said:

Having read other posts, I seem to be getting off fairly lightly. I will no longer worry about random and generally unrepeatable hangs at assorted places during building DVDs, during burning, when trying to use D2D or when loading. Nor will I remain surprised that my free version of Roxio Creator simply stopped working one day after I had installed IE7, forcing me to upgrade to EMC9 - bad decision!
However, I now have a solid fault which I would appreciate some feedback on. Suddenly VideoWave (the only component which, up to now, had performed faultlessly) has started to crash every time I try to insert a transition.  The Microsoft report says that it is attempting to access an instruction at an invalid memory location.

System:
AMD Athlon 3200+ with HTT
ATI Radion Xpress 200 motherboard
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 onboard graphics
1Gb dual channel DDR RAM (PC3200) 400MHz
Dual layer DVD RW
DVD ROM
Roxio EMC free edition UPGRADED to EMC9 in November 2006  - though every time I start the application I am exhorted to upgrade to EMC9 !!!!

Upgrade your onboard graphics chip to the latest drivers.  I don't know if it will help, but it can't hurt.

Get rid of IE7 and WMP 11, if you have updated to that version.

[Ralph]

Many thans for that quick response. Yes - the drivers are up to date, and I am using IE7 and WMP11 ...

... and therein lies the rub!

EMC reminds me of the bad old days of the 1990's when all applications were unstable. After being stretched a few times they had to be re-installed. Apple - followed by WindowsXP - ushered in a new era of stable and resilient software. IE7 is stable and almost as good as Mozilla. My limited expereience of WMP11 suggests that it has quite a lot to offer - and it appears to be solid.
I had thought that the instability of the free EMC was because it was ancient (which is not unreasonable, given that it is free!). I was very disappointed to find that Roxio's banner product is only slightly less unstable than the free version and I will be appalled if, having been recommended to move to EMC9 in order to use it under IE7, I now find that it is still flawed. It is a pretty poor commentary on their developers if they can't write a suite which doesn't die whenever Microsoft improves its packages. I will be equally dismayed if you are telling me that it won't run with other video software on the platform.  
This afternoon, after adding a few snippets of background music,  I find that some snippets play sometimes, and other snippets play at other times. It would seem that 'restarts' move the offending bit of program around the files!!. All very reminiscent of a poorly constructed package. Maybe I'll just background with a single slice of Wagner to reflect my mood.
Oh yes - good news. Video Wave has stopped crashing

Does anybody know of any other software out there which actually delivers what EMC9 claims to offer???

Edited by Ralph, 06 January 2007 - 08:12 AM.

[grandpabruce]

Ralph, on Jan 6 2007, 10:11 AM, said:

Many thans for that quick response. Yes - the drivers are up to date, and I am using IE7 and WMP11 ...

... and therein lies the rub!

EMC reminds me of the bad old days of the 1990's when all applications were unstable. After being stretched a few times they had to be re-installed. Apple - followed by WindowsXP - ushered in a new era of stable and resilient software. IE7 is stable and almost as good as Mozilla. My limited expereience of WMP11 suggests that it has quite a lot to offer - and it appears to be solid.
I had thought that the instability of the free EMC was because it was ancient (which is not unreasonable, given that it is free!). I was very disappointed to find that Roxio's banner product is only slightly less unstable than the free version and I will be appalled if, having been recommended to move to EMC9 in order to use it under IE7, I now find that it is still flawed. It is a pretty poor commentary on their developers if they can't write a suite which doesn't die whenever Microsoft improves its packages. I will be equally dismayed if you are telling me that it won't run with other video software on the platform.  
This afternoon, after adding a few snippets of background music,  I find that some snippets play sometimes, and other snippets play at other times. It would seem that 'restarts' move the offending bit of program around the files!!. All very reminiscent of a poorly constructed package. Maybe I'll just background with a single slice of Wagner to reflect my mood.
Oh yes - good news. Video Wave has stopped crashing

Does anybody know of any other software out there which actually delivers what EMC9 claims to offer???

Do an IE7 Google of the Internet, and have a look at what your stable Microsoft product has rendered unstable.  I had IE 7 installed with EMC 9 and did not have any problems.  However, IE7 killed EMC 7.5, so since IE 7 didn't offer me anything I wanted or needed, I happily rolled back to IE 6, and all is well.  

[Margie N.]

Ralph, on Jan 6 2007, 01:10 AM, said:

Having read other posts, I seem to be getting off fairly lightly. I will no longer worry about random and generally unrepeatable hangs at assorted places during building DVDs, during burning, when trying to use D2D or when loading. Nor will I remain surprised that my free version of Roxio Creator simply stopped working one day after I had installed IE7, forcing me to upgrade to EMC9 - bad decision!
However, I now have a solid fault which I would appreciate some feedback on. Suddenly VideoWave (the only component which, up to now, had performed faultlessly) has started to crash every time I try to insert a transition.  The Microsoft report says that it is attempting to access an instruction at an invalid memory location.

System:
AMD Athlon 3200+ with HTT
ATI Radion Xpress 200 motherboard
ATI Radeon Xpress 200 onboard graphics
1Gb dual channel DDR RAM (PC3200) 400MHz
Dual layer DVD RW
DVD ROM
Roxio EMC free edition UPGRADED to EMC9 in November 2006  - though every time I start the application I am exhorted to upgrade to EMC9 !!!!

  I have the same problem...can anyone help me in terms a "dummy" can understand?

Edited by Margie N., 07 January 2007 - 07:57 AM.

[grandpabruce]

Margie N., on Jan 7 2007, 09:49 AM, said:

  I have the same problem...can anyone help me in terms a "dummy" can understand?

The second sentence in Post #2 of this thread should help.  Uninstall those 2 items, through Add/Remove Programs.

Getting rid of Windows Media Player 11 is a bit harder.  There is a post, somewhere in these forums, that has a link on the lengthy process to dump it.

[Ralph]

Having worked in the IT business in my youth (when mainframes were all that was available) I'm kinda forced to the conclusion that the Roxio designers are either incompetent or have been forced to cut corners by using Microsoft DLLs 'in situ' instead of embedding code in the EMC application. It is virtually impossible for an update/upgrade, even to an operating system, to impact an Application unless the App has been badly designed. I find it inconceivable that a simple Application (Media Player) can randomly and intermittently prevent access to the audio codecs required by another program.
But thank you for the comments. I'm delighted to say that somebody has pointed me at Sony Movie Studio Platinum - which I'm assured is stable.
Does anybody know anything about that package - either in support of it or otherwise?

Thanks again for your efforts to assist.

[DannyBoy]

Ralph, on Jan 13 2007, 02:13 AM, said:

Having worked in the IT business in my youth (when mainframes were all that was available) I'm kinda forced to the conclusion that the Roxio designers are either incompetent or have been forced to cut corners by using Microsoft DLLs 'in situ' instead of embedding code in the EMC application. It is virtually impossible for an update/upgrade, even to an operating system, to impact an Application unless the App has been badly designed. I find it inconceivable that a simple Application (Media Player) can randomly and intermittently prevent access to the audio codecs required by another program.
But thank you for the comments. I'm delighted to say that somebody has pointed me at Sony Movie Studio Platinum - which I'm assured is stable.
Does anybody know anything about that package - either in support of it or otherwise?

Thanks again for your efforts to assist.

Hi Ralph,
I am sorry I can't answer your question, but instead have a question for you concerning the stability of Media player, and ask if you can help me out. (You seem knowlegable) I have an old computer, and for years I have enjoyed the use of my Easy CD creator v3.5c. It worked fine on my computer (running windowsME) untill I upgraded my computer to windows XP professional. now I keep getting an instability error, and it won't allow me to run it. What made me pick you to ask, was you said something about instability, and being glad someone pointed you to sony. If i downloaded the sony player (and is it free?) and deleted my windows media player, will that allow my easy cd creator to opperate? if so, where can I get the download for the Sony?
I have tried and tried to find upgrades on the roxio site and google for my cd creator, but to no avail. I think it is a deliberate and intentional flaw to get you to BUY the upgrade, but they want 80 bucks!!! If I HAD 80 bucks, I could go to Walmart, and buy a brand new double layer DVD recorder with a lazer lable scribe. But I dont have 80 bucks available to spend on my computer right now, I just want to make my old fasioned cd burner copy my files and music. Thank you in advance, any information you can give me will be appretiated - DannyBoy

[gi7omy]

Danny - ECD 3.5 is a VERY old app and in fact dates back to the days of 2x CD recorders (when they cost an arm and a leg).

Even if you went out and bought that $80 DVD writer - there's NO way that v3.5 would work with it.

If you google - you will find numerous offers - ECD6, EMC7, 7.5, 8 and even 9 discounted (and all of those will work in XP - however, despite what some people may have eaid earlier in this topic, they will NOT work if either   Internet Explorer 7 or Windows Media Player 9 are installed - whatever MS did with those they made fundamental changes to the OS and wrecked a number of other apps, not just Roxio)

[DannyBoy]

gi7omy, on Jan 13 2007, 03:43 AM, said:

Danny - ECD 3.5 is a VERY old app and in fact dates back to the days of 2x CD recorders (when they cost an arm and a leg).

Even if you went out and bought that $80 DVD writer - there's NO way that v3.5 would work with it.

If you google - you will find numerous offers - ECD6, EMC7, 7.5, 8 and even 9 discounted (and all of those will work in XP - however, despite what some people may have eaid earlier in this topic, they will NOT work if either   Internet Explorer 7 or Windows Media Player 9 are installed - whatever MS did with those they made fundamental changes to the OS and wrecked a number of other apps, not just Roxio)

Thanks you gi7omy, I have Internet explorer 7 and media player 11, Im really concidering taking a step backwards and reformatting everything back to windows ME, atleast I had a clue what I was doing on it.

[grandpabruce]

Ralph, on Jan 13 2007, 04:13 AM, said:

. I'm delighted to say that somebody has pointed me at Sony Movie Studio Platinum - which I'm assured is stable.
Does anybody know anything about that package - either in support of it or otherwise?

Go to the Sony forums and ask, and don't let the door.....

[frc]

Ralph, on Jan 13 2007, 02:13 AM, said:

Having worked in the IT business in my youth (when mainframes were all that was available) I'm kinda forced to the conclusion that the Roxio designers are either incompetent or have been forced to cut corners by using Microsoft DLLs 'in situ' instead of embedding code in the EMC application. It is virtually impossible for an update/upgrade, even to an operating system, to impact an Application unless the App has been badly designed. I find it inconceivable that a simple Application (Media Player) can randomly and intermittently prevent access to the audio codecs required by another program.
But thank you for the comments. I'm delighted to say that somebody has pointed me at Sony Movie Studio Platinum - which I'm assured is stable.
Does anybody know anything about that package - either in support of it or otherwise?

Thanks again for your efforts to assist.

I was coming to the same conclusion as you... "Roxio designers are either incompetent ...".  There seem to be so many issues regarding crashes, errors and performance, that I regret purchasing MyDVD9.  And every time, all you hear is the standard... update drivers, update video card, unload/downgrade other apps (that work fine with thousands of other apps), etc.  And the irony is, that I loaded a very old version of MyDVD (pre Roxio, v4.x), and it works perfectly.  Even with all the new hardware, drivers, etc.  And it's fast, and doesn't slow my PC's overall performance down with a bunch of services.  Sure, there are less features, but at least it runs.

[barryware]

Ralph, on Jan 13 2007, 02:13 AM, said:

I'm delighted to say that somebody has pointed me at Sony Movie Studio Platinum - which I'm assured is stable.
Does anybody know anything about that package - either in support of it or otherwise?

Flawless... A bit more complicated to use but produces perfect projects and doesn't seem to crash.. EVER!

Edited by barryware, 15 January 2007 - 07:37 AM.

[ggrussell]

barryware, on Jan 15 2007, 10:36 AM, said:

Flawless... A bit more complicated to use but produces perfect projects and doesn't seem to crash.. EVER!

Owned it, too. Read through Sony's forum. Plenty of users are having trouble.  EMC 9 has always run 'flawless' for me so just just proves that all software does not run on all hardware combinations.  I don't think ANY company can make that claim. Not even Microsoft.

[Ralph]

Thanks everybody - I seem to have stirred up more reaction than I could possibly have expected. Like FRC, a really old version of EMC had worked on my PC and there's no doubt in my mind that the developers of the present system have been asked to meet unattainable heights with the raw materials with which they are working. Whether Microsoft messes up an App or whether the App designer hasn't interfaced properly is, and always will be, a matter of conjecture.

[gi7omy]

The day that someone writes and produces an app that never crashes will be the day that all software houses go out of business

Microsoft isn't conjecture - anyone recall the original Windows 1 and 2, 95 (on a stack of floppies) 98 with IE4 (first edition) and not least Multiple Errors?

[ggrussell]

Ralph, on Jan 15 2007, 11:21 AM, said:

Thanks everybody - I seem to have stirred up more reaction than I could possibly have expected. Like FRC, a really old version of EMC had worked on my PC...

Starting with EMC 8, most of the applications were totally rewritten and are much more demanding on the hardware especially the video subsytem.  I don't know of ANY other video editing software that takes advantage of the 3D rendering ability of the GPU.

Reading the ATI website, the Express 200 is "A graphics core derived from ATI's successful   Radeon® X300 architecture".  I'm not sure what 'derived' means in this case. Check Videowave/MyDVD under TOOLS and try the graphics test.

Quote

I find it inconceivable that a simple Application (Media Player) can randomly and intermittently prevent access to the audio codecs required by another program.

Just another mess that Microsoft has created. When a codec is installed it is assigned a 'merit' value by the installer. The higher the merit value, those codecs will be used first by the 'system'. There is NOTHING to prevent applications to overwrite these merit values thus a huge mess.  For example, the Sonic MPEG encoder may work fine with Videowave/MyDVD, but if the merit value has been changed high enough it could force Media Player to use it which may not work. Similar things happen with the audio codecs.

Edited by ggrussell, 15 January 2007 - 08:44 AM.

[barryware]

barryware, on Jan 15 2007, 07:36 AM, said:

Flawless... A bit more complicated to use but produces perfect projects and doesn't seem to crash.. EVER!

Allow me to re-phrase.

Since the 27th of December when I purchased and installed it (VMS + DVD), I have had absolutely no issues with crashes, hangs, error messages, video & audio being out of sync on finished projects, pixely video, choppy audio, missing stills, or anything else that I can speak of based on what features I have used.

I did have one project failure but that was self inflicted. Seems I forgot to render the audio with the video. Oops... No sound.

There may be something I haven't used yet that may crash or hang.

A note about EMC9. To date, I have had no crashes or error messages in any of the apps I have used. I just can't get a finished video / DVD project to play acceptably.

I have a support ticket I opened with Roxio on the 26th of December and to date, has gone unanswered. Hence my decision to try a different software suite. Plus the fact I needed something that would allow me to finish the project I was working on.

I keep hanging out waiting for an update from Roxio or at least a response to my support ticket. Plus... I am starting to like you guys.